Foucault News

The New Zealand experiment: assessment-driven curriculum – managing standards, competition and performance to strengthen governmentality (2015)

Clare O'Farrell

30 June 2015

O’Neill, A.-M.
The New Zealand experiment: assessment-driven curriculum – managing standards, competition and performance to strengthen governmentality
(2015) Journal of Education Policy, 24 p. Article in Press.

DOI: 10.1080/02680939.2015.1033766

Abstract
Following the Tomorrow’s Schools administrative restructuring, a second wave of educational change installed globalised discourses as governmentality policies in Aotearoa New Zealand. Drawing on Foucault’s ‘toolkit’, this genealogical policy chronology traces the transformation of curriculum and assessment into a specific political rationality, unsupported by national standards (NS) or testing. Its inscription into students and teachers through technical-managerial and business-market discourses, sought to remake them as enterprising, industrious and governable within an Enterprise Culture. The paper traces the microphysics of the institution of this rationality, through the fusion of curriculum, assessment and economic policy, and the imposition of a NS accountability framework onto curriculum. Learning discourses encouraged teachers to locally breakdown objectives and activate them as NS to initiate governance by outcomes, targets and results. Reinforcing market relations, this installed the basis of performativity and measurement. By 1995, the failure to attain reliable, comparable data, calculate productivity gains and leverage standards, resulted in the government’s review and audit agency declaring standards non-existent and the framework unworkable. This paper demonstrates the centrality of curriculum assessment, even with ostensibly failing purposes, to the construction of malleable human capital and the embedding of a calculative governmentality for future population knowledge, management and control. © 2015 Taylor & Francis

Author Keywords
curriculum assessment; economisation; education policy; governmentality; rationality; standards

Foucault et Baudrillard: La fin du pouvoir (2015)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

29 June 2015

Hamdi Nabli, Foucault et Baudrillard: La fin du pouvoir, L’Harmattan, 2015
ISBN : 978-2-343-05754-5 • 1 juin 2015 • 214 pages

Foucault, dans son Histoire de la sexualité, esquissa une anthropologie du plaisir dans l’Antiquité gréco-romaine. Ce travail avait constitué un virage, car depuis Mai 68, l’intellectuel avait fait de l’engagement le vecteur des résistances modernes. Dans son Oublier Foucault, Baudrillard reprochait au philosophe de garder intacte l’instance du pouvoir comme grille d’intelligibilité ultime. Dès lors, la façon dont Foucault a orienté sa recherche, en se focalisant sur la subjectivité, l’éthique de soi, l’esthétique de l’existence et le style de vie, ne serait-elle pas une manière de concéder à la critique de Baudrillard une part de vérité ?

Les mouvements de libération avaient provoqué chez Foucault l’espoir d’un agencement fructueux entre une sexualité renouvelée et une nouvelle culture. Or, l’évolution des sociétés a montré une adéquation entre cette nouvelle culture socio-sexuelle et la société de consommation. Cette culture n’est-elle pas devenue un modèle d’intégration à la société postmoderne, une matrice du « nouvel esprit du capitalisme », et le garant d’un nouvel ordre établi ?

HAMDI NABLI est né à Paris, en 1981. Diplômé de sciences politiques à La Sorbonne, il est enseignant chargé de cours à l’université Paris-3 Sorbonne Nouvelle et consultant chargé de mission au Collège des Bernardins. Il a publié La Fraternité aryenne. L’esprit du terrorisme au cœur de l’Amérique blanche (Connaissances et Savoirs, 2012) et L’inégalité politique en démocratie (Fondation Jean-Jaurès, 2013).

Table des matières
Introduction : Traiter des passions en histoire des idées

PREMIÈRE PARTIE : OUBLIS ET RÉMINISCENCES
L’oubli de soi. De la folie au savoir : la connaissance tragique.
Le pouvoir et son contraire
Le souci de soi. La subjectivité, l’absence de moi

DEUXIÈME PARTIE : GÉNÉALOGIES ET NÉCROLOGIES
Vers la singularité.
Les rapports ambigus à Nietzsche
Traditionalisme et postmodernisme

TROISIÈME PARTIE : SOUCIS DES AUTRES ET FAUSSES SINGULARITÉS
Les ambivalences du souci.
L’homosexualisme : de la communauté contreculturelle au ‘‘pouvoir’’ gay
L’idéologie du care contre le souci de soi.
L’éthique du souci et l’esprit du néocapitalisme
Échapper à la règle (du jeu)
Bibliographie

Government, rights and legitimacy: Foucault and liberal political normativity (2015)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

28 June 2015

Paul Patton, Government, rights and legitimacy: Foucault and liberal political normativity, European Journal of Political Theory May 5, 2015

doi: 10.1177/1474885115582077

Abstract
One way to characterise the difference between analytic and Continental political philosophy concerns the different roles played by normative and descriptive analysis in each case. This article argues that, even though Michel Foucault’s genealogy of liberal and neoliberal governmentality and John Rawls’s political liberalism involve different articulations of normative and descriptive concerns, they are complementary rather than antithetical to one another. The argument is developed in three stages: first, by suggesting that Foucault offers a way to conceive of public reason as a historical phenomenon. Second, it is suggested that both Rawls and Foucault allow us to consider rights as historical and particular rather than a-historical and universal. Third, it is argued that Foucault’s genealogy of modern liberal government illuminates some of the tensions and some of the alternatives within the liberal tradition in relation to the concept of political legitimacy.

Foucault
governmentality
homo juridicus
homo oeconomicus
legitimacy
neoliberalism
public reason
Rawls
rights

Hamdi Nabli : “Le discours radical offre une binarisation du monde, il faut un discours alternatif” (2015)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

27 June 2015

Hamdi Nabli : “Le discours radical offre une binarisation du monde, il faut un discours alternatif”, Bondy Blog en partenariat avec Liberation, mardi 27 janvier 2015

Par Mathieu Blard

Influencé par les théories de Foucault et Baudrillard, Hamdi Nabli, politologue, livre son regard sur la radicalisation, le traitement médiatique et ses conséquences. Rencontre.

Vendredi 23 janvier, 10h Collège des Bernardins, dans le Ve arrondissement parisien, rendez vous avec Hamdi Nabli, politologue, auteur de La fraternité aryenne, l’esprit du terrorisme au cœur de l’Amérique blanche, et co-auteur de L’inégalité politique en démocratie.

Est-il possible de dégager les causes de radicalisation ?

Hamdi Nabli : Les causes sont plus ou moins connues. Les policiers et les criminologues en ont conscience, ce sont les inégalités économiques et sociales. C’est aussi la prison au cœur de la société française, autour de laquelle il y a une vraie hypocrisie. Il est dit que c’est un problème, alors que c’est un système fonctionnel. Comme le souligne Michel Foucault dans Surveiller et punir, on utilise la prison pour créer cette figure du délinquant qu’on va pouvoir ensuite attaquer dès qu’il va se passer quelque chose. La prison est l’institution phare de la société occidentale moderne. C’est elle qui fonde une société qui exclut, régie par le principe selon lequel celui qui enfreint la loi doit être hors la société. Ce n’est pas un problème de cas sociaux, c’est un problème de civilisation. L’exclusion est un problème central qui se voit aussi au niveau des territoires. Il existe une forme de ségrégation au cœur même de l’inclusion sociale.

suite

Prospects for an Ethics of Self-Cultivation (2015)

Clare O'Farrell

1 comment

26 June 2015

Prospects for an Ethics of Self-Cultivation

Introduction

Videos of this conference

‘Prospects for an Ethics of Self-Cultivation’ is a two-year research project investigating the revival of ethical self-cultivation within the European philosophical tradition.

The project will host two international conferences and workshops. The first, entitled ‘Hellenistic Ethics from Nietzsche to Foucault’, took place at the University of Warwick, UK in September 2014. The second, entitled ‘Modern Appraisals of the Hellenistic Legacy’, will be at Monash University’s campus in Prato, Italy in June 2015.

Theatre, Performance, Foucault! – programme 2015

Clare O'Farrell

3 comments

25 June 2015

Theatre, Performance, Foucault!

One-day symposium hosted by the Theatre, Performance and Philosophy working group of the Theatre and Performance Research Association (TaPRA)

Saturday, 4^th July 2015
King’s College London
K0.31 Small Committee Room, Strand London UK WC2R 2LS

Registration site

Welcome

9:30-10am Welcome, registration and tea/coffee

Session 1: Theatre/Foucault/Theatre
10am – 11:30am

Mark Robson (University of Dundee), “Foucault and Theatre: Playing Placeless Place”

Stuart Elden (University of Warwick), “Foucault and Shakespeare: Ceremony, Theatre and Politics”

Aline Wiame (Université Libre de Bruxelles), “Foucault’s Genealogical Theatre of Truth and its Impact on Performance Philosophy”

break

Interruption/Provocation 1: ‘Murmurs of Resemblance’
11:45am –12:15pm

P.A. Skantze (University of Roehampton), “The Table that Says Its Name”

Eleni Kolliopoulou (independent artist, Turin), “Dead can dance” and “8-9”

Lunch

12:15 – 1:30pm Please join us for lunch at Fernandez & Wells, in the Somerset House courtyard

Session 2: Forms, Methods and Methodologies
1:30pm – 3pm

Magnolia Pauker (Emily Carr University of Art and Design, University of British Columbia and European Graduate School), “Foucault Live! ‘A voice that still eludes the tomb of the text’”

Mischa Twitchin (Queen Mary, University of London), “Animating Masks”

Fay Brauer (University of East London and University of New South Wales), “Performing Biopouvoir: Body Culture, Scientia Sexualis and Eugenics”

break

Interruptions/Provocations 2: Time and the ‘Conduct of Souls’
3:15 – 3:30pm

Steve Potter (Goldsmiths, University of London / Cornell University), “Doing Time Together: Music, Chance, and the Security State”

Tea & coffee break
3:30 – 4pm

Session 3: Critical Historiography / Theatre and Performance Genealogies in the dix-neuvième
4pm – 5:15pm

Eve Katsouraki (University of East London), Chair “On the Interstices of Knowledge and Theatre Historiography: a Provocation”

Tony Fisher (Central School of Speech and Drama), “A Night at the Riot: the struggle against monopoly and the governmentalisation of the stage”

Kélina Gotman (King’s College London), “Archaeology, Genealogy, Choreography: Imagining Dance Histories in Motion”

Response
5:15 – 5:30pm

Sanja Perovic (King’s College London)

Symposium dinner and drinks

5:30pm Please join us for dinner and drinks at the India Club, upstairs from the Hotel Strand Continental, 143 Strand WC2R 1JA

Please note all attendees must register on our Eventbrite page:https://www.eventbrite.com/e/theatre-performance-foucault-tickets-17398034991. Registration is free for TaPRA members, and £10 for non-members. Spaces are limited, so advance registration is strongly advised.

Estudos Nietzsche: Special Issue on Foucault and Nietzsche (2014)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

24 June 2015

Estudos Nietzsche: Special Issue on Foucault and Nietzsche, vol.5, no.1, jan./jun. 2014

Estudos Nietzsche is an open access journal. Full PDFs are available. All articles are in Portuguese

SUMÁRIO

Editorial

1. Editorial v. 5, n. 1 (jan./jun. 2014)
Ernani Chaves.

Artigos

1. Filosofia da cultura e escrita da história: Notas sobre as relações entre os projetos de uma genealogia da cultura em Foucault e Nietzsche

Philosophy of culture and writing of history: Notes on the relationship between the projects of a genealogy of culture in Foucault and Nietzsche
Oswaldo Giacoia Júnior.

2. Retesamentos discursivos: um olhar foucaultiano do estilo antidogmático de Nietzsche

Discursive stiffness: A Foucauldian approach of the antidogmatic style of Nietzsche
Carlos Eduardo Ribeiro, Alexandre Filordi de Carvalho.

3. O Nietzsche de Foucault, o Foucault de Nietzsche

The Nietzsche of Foucault, the Foucault of Nietzsche
Thiago Fortes Ribas.

4. O sol negro da linguagem: Nietzsche, Foucault e a questão do sentido

The dark sun of language: Nietzsche, Foucault and the question of meaning
Fabiano Lemos.

5. Por uma injustiça, dois Platões: tempo e genealogia em F. Nietzsche e M. Foucault

For one injustice, two Platos: time and genealogy in F. Nietzsche and M. Foucault
Felipe Figueiredo de Campos Ribeiro.

6. Prazer, sexualidade e normalização do real

Pleasure, sexuality and normalization of real
Giovana Carmo Temple, Malcom Guimarães Rodrigues.

7. Foucault, Nietzsche: teoria do conhecimento, teologia e crítica da modernidade

Foucault, Nietzsche: theory of knowledge, theology and modernity critique
Ricardo Bazilio Dalla Vecchia.

Resenhas

1. Nietzsche contra Darwin
Oscar Augusto Rocha Santos.

Foucault and May 1968 (2015)

Clare O'Farrell

2 comments

23 June 2015

Foucault and May 1968

Published on 18 Jun 2015

François Ewald (CNAM), Bernard Harcourt (Columbia Law School, Columbia Center for Contemporary Critical Thought), and Jesús R. Velasco (LAIC Chair, Columbia University) delve into the influences and effects of Michel Foucault’s lectures at the College de France, Penal Theories and Institutions (1971-1972). The panelists explore how the social unrest of 1968 influenced Foucault as he began to work out theories on repressive disciplinary penal systems that he would develop fully in one of his most important works, Discipline and Punish.

Foucault Studies: Special Issue: New Work on Foucault and Disability (2015)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

22 June 2015

New issue
Foucault Studies
Number 19: Disability

Foucault Studies is an open access journal and full PDFs of the articles can be found on the website.

Table of Contents

Editorial
Sverre Raffnsøe, Alain Beaulieu, Sam Binkley, Barbara Cruikshank, Knut Ove Eliassen, Marius Gudmand-Høyer, Johanna Oksala, Sven Opitz, Jyoti Puri, Jens Erik Kristensen, Alan Rosenberg, Jeppe Groot

This issue includes:

Special Issue: New Work on Foucault and Disability

New Work on Foucault and Disability: An Introductory Note
Shelley Tremain 4-6

This Is What a Historicist and Relativist Feminist Philosophy of Disability Looks Like
Shelley Tremain 7-42

Desiring Disability Differently: Neoliberalism, Heterotopic Imagination and Intra-corporeal Reconfigurations
Kelly Fritsch 43-66

Genealogies of Disability in Global Governance: A Foucauldian Critique of Disability and Development
Xuan-Thuy Nguyen 67-83

Neoliberalism and Disability: The Possibilities and Limitations of a Foucauldian Critique
Scott Yates 84-107

Historical Epistemology as Disability Studies Methodology: From the Models Framework to Foucault’s Archaeology of Cure
Aimi Hamraie 108-134

Articles

Foucault on Ethics and Subjectivity: ‘Care of the Self’ and ‘Aesthetics of Existence’
Daniel Smith 135-150

State Racism and the Paradox of Biopower
Elisa Fiaccadori 151-171

Political Technique, the Conflict of Umori, and Foucault’s Reading of Machiavelli in Sécurité, Territoire, Population
Sean Erwin 172-190

Alea Capta Est: Foucault’s Dispositif and Capturing Chance
Nick Hardy 191-216

Translations

Standing Vigil for the Day to Come
Elise Woodard, Robert Harvey 217-223

Reviews

Stylisation and Enlightenment in Foucault’s Ethics I

Clare O'Farrell

1 comment

21 June 2015

Stockerblog

Serialising a paper I wrote a while back that has ideas on Foucault I am still working on, but which is going to be absorbed into different parts of that work, so I’d like to put it here as a way of setting up some part of what I think is important in Foucault

Foucault’s approach to antique ethics is often seen as advocating a style of living, in which the individual engages in self-invention unrestrained by inner nature or external reality. However, Foucault’s references to style of living have an ontology in the sense that individual living, and self creation, is discussed in the context of physical nature and social relations. Individual pleasure is only well formed where it is also care of the self, a care of the self that refers to the nature of the body, and to relations with others. Foucault refers to an active…

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